PUCRS Professor joins team to implement System for Evaluation of Higher Education in the country
The Associate Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Planning and Evaluation Officer, Dr Marion Creutzberg, has joined the international cooperation committee that seeks to implement a System for Evaluation of Higher Education in São Tomé e Príncipe. The first mission in that African nation occurred from Jul 21 – 29, and the group drew up the guidelines underlying the task-force of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. She was invited by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research (Inep)/Ministry of Education of Brazil to take part in the team.
In a previously held seminar involving the managers and professors of the Higher Education Institutions of São Tomé e Príncipe, the team designed an instrument for external evaluation of the institution and its programs, in accordance with the country’s law. She also helped develop specific laws for the implementation of a System of Evaluation for the nation. The actions were conducted in partnership with the country’s Board of Higher Education.
Dr Marion showed them the “other side of those who experience the national evaluation system of higher education”, as she helped them envision the benefits that Self-Evaluation and External Evaluation produce in the participating institutions. “We are obviously looking at two different realities. However, my experience as an evaluator – in view of the different realities of Higher Education Institutions of Brazil – and as a member of the Technical Commission of Evaluation and Oversight for 10 years at PUCRS, make me to look at things from a broader and more sympathetic perspective. This is essential in supporting and cooperating with countries where Higher Education is recent, but essential for development”, says she. A system for evaluation of Higher Education in São Tomé e Príncipe is mostly intended for the programs offered, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as the production of knowledge, to contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of São Tomé e Príncipe.
This will be the first evaluation system to be implemented there. The 2003 legislation established that an evaluation mechanism should take effect but, up until today, there is no autonomous, independent system compatible to the local reality. These efforts of cooperation seek to address this issue. As soon as the guidelines developed are officially published by the Ministry of Education and Science of São Tomé, the next two missions will be confirmed. The first, which is expected for sometime later in 2018, will address training programs for professors-evaluators and Ministry’s levels of evaluation. The second will oversee the process of evaluation of the country’s current three Higher Education Institutions in depth.
